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#170 Best Laid Plans

As the old saying goes, "We plan, God laughs"; no matter how carefully we try and prepare for the future, life tends to get in the way. Sometimes these obstacles are actually opportunities, and things work out for the better. Sometimes, these disappointments don’t have a happy ending. Either way, we have to muddle through.

This week’s prompts are all about plans — whether they work out, they don’t, or we never had one to begin with!

🥇 Winner

Fini Flight

Winner of Contest #170 🏆

Fini FlightTigger Warning:Suicide, Violence, Swearing"It's like flying."She said as I peered down at the two dead bodies laying on the ground below me. I was one of the four who decided to jump instead. The unlucky four who didn't escape."Well?"Well what? You're asking me to jump off a fucking building."Together?" I ask"No, you go first."What does that mean? Is she really going to chicken out? She was the one who so readily agreed to the idea."What?""You go first.""No.""Why?""What do you mean why?" I can feel the anger inside of me boiling u...

195 likes

113 comments 113

⭐️ Shortlisted

The Rosary

Murray Burns

Shortlisted for Contest #170 ⭐️

The Rosary It is a wondrous thing when two lives intersect at exactly the right time and place to create a meaningful, fulfilling future, or perhaps at least a wonderful memory. It borders on the miraculous when three lives meet at the same time and place to create that one special moment in time. But one crisp fall evening in this small town, they did. Tommy was a 6th grader at St. Mary’s. Like many young boys, he wasn’t fond of school, but it did present the opportunity to participate in his one passion in life- football. As a “scrub” on...

41 likes

The Okayish Kids

Shortlisted for Contest #170 ⭐️

I make a list for everything. Groceries.To-dos.Every life-defining experience I want to have before I die—although, fact is, I never die. At approximately 1,751 years, 10 months, 29 days, 23 hours and 25 minutes old, I’m surprised that my nutrionally void diet of fruit cake and cookies hasn’t killed me just yet. These lists consume most of my day. They give me a sense of control over my life, from the precise order of my daily activities to errands I need to check off. My relentless nag of a wife, who unfortunately never dies...

36 likes

English Class

Shortlisted for Contest #170 ⭐️

I’m sitting in English class, ripping my nails apart, dizzy with grief. I had gotten a red gel manicure over fall break with my grandmother. I felt pretty, put together, more like a woman than what I am—a college girl with nothing figured out. Now I’m cursing my choices, as my thumb is a jagged mountain from digging under the shiny red. I need it off desperately, need my hands to be mine again. The red is making my eyes burn, my throat tighten, and my chest collapse. I’m sitting in my English class. It’s a Monday, and it...

26 likes

Homemade Wine: A Sestina Story

Michael Mabrito

Shortlisted for Contest #170 ⭐️

Homemade Wine: A Sestina Story by M. S. Mabrito Late on a warm fall afternoon many years ago, I had planned to meet friends behind the abandoned bottle factory and drink as much beer as I possibly could but as I passed my grandfather sitting on our porch drinking a glass of his homemade wine, he intercepted me and began to lecture me about my lack of drive and imagination. I was the only son of his only son and he desperately wanted me to imagine a life beyond what he called, with some contempt and some sadness, the small, unexceptional wo...

26 likes

A LITTLE TRIP

Shortlisted for Contest #170 ⭐️

The lady with the bright blue hat looked on as her speckled cat was swatting at the firefly as it went trapesing by. She then spied a spider whose bottom half was wider, with a hangman's noose beside her, attempt to end it all. Her puppy wouldn't have it, but as he tried to grab it, a caterpillar stabbed it so it could watch her fall. The lady thought it tragic, the speckled cat cried, Magic! The puppy pawed a maggot to forget about it all.The parachute won't open, the elephant had spoken, the latch inside was broken, the monkey did it all. ...

23 likes

This week's prompts

Start your story with the line “I’ve got a plan”.

Dialogue – 59 stories

Write a story about a character who tries to control their life down to the most minute detail — but has to learn to let go.

Character – 24 stories

Write about a plan that goes wrong, for the better.

Middle School – 38 stories

Write a story that involves the architectural plans for a building.

Mystery – 10 stories

Fly by the seat of your pants and write a story without a plan.

Short Story – 68 stories

Stories

Fini Flight

Winner of Contest #170 🏆

Fini FlightTigger Warning:Suicide, Violence, Swearing"It's like flying."She said as I peered down at the two dead bodies laying on the ground below me. I was one of the four who decided to jump instead. The unlucky four who didn't escape."Well?"Well what? You're asking me to jump off a fucking building."Together?" I ask"No, you go first."What does that mean? Is she really going to chicken out? She was the one who so readily agreed to the idea."What?""You go first.""No.""Why?""What do you mean why?" I can feel the anger inside of me boiling u...

195 likes

113 comments 113

Trips Not Traveled, Flights Not Flown, and Roads Not Walked

Stevie B

Submitted to Contest #170

“I’ve got a plan,” I told my fine companions, “Let’s all take a trip together!”Well, first, there was the weekend away we’d scheduled last July to the New Jersey Pine Barrens, aka the Pines. It’s one of the largest and last remaining Atlantic coastal pine barren ecosystems. The term “pine barrens” connotes an area with acidic, sandy, nutrient-deficient soil. Residents refer to their soil as sugar sand. It was also said to be the home of the fabled Jersey Devil, who back in the day was allegedly born the 13th child of Mrs. Leeds, a local woma...

78 likes

At the Mercy of Your Choices

Aeris Walker

Submitted to Contest #170

For the longest time, when I thought about who I was, I could only see you. When asked what I wanted, I would turn to ask you. Sometimes, I still do. I wouldn’t be where I am without you, and for that I am grateful, but those ties that once bound us have frayed and snapped and will never be what they were. I was your obsession, even before I had a heartbeat. My existence was pre-plotted by you—you who consulted the calendar and mapped your cycles like stars in the sky, then aligned those nights for bodies to collide, and the seed of me took ...

43 likes

May Day

Submitted to Contest #170

“I’ve got a plan.” “NO!” “What do you mean, no?” “In the same vernacular of No more plans, no.” “Why not?” “Because your plans are shit!” “For example?” “Take a look around, genius…” Tom Daly and Eric Watkins had been friends since boyhood. Mates in school, drinking buddies at their local pub, and currently, failed partners in crime, as the two compadres visually surveyed the box-like bank vault they had inadvertently trapped themselves in. “How was I to know the door shut automatically?” Eric unapologetically pointed out. Tom remained silen...

42 likes

The Rosary

Murray Burns

Shortlisted for Contest #170 ⭐️

The Rosary It is a wondrous thing when two lives intersect at exactly the right time and place to create a meaningful, fulfilling future, or perhaps at least a wonderful memory. It borders on the miraculous when three lives meet at the same time and place to create that one special moment in time. But one crisp fall evening in this small town, they did. Tommy was a 6th grader at St. Mary’s. Like many young boys, he wasn’t fond of school, but it did present the opportunity to participate in his one passion in life- football. As a “scrub” on...

41 likes

Guiscard Lescot and the Wolfish Bedevilment of Klöpz

Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #170

“I’ve got a plan.” Those were the words that doomed Guiscard Lescot, just two days ago.He reached for the next branch and pulled himself higher up the tree, sweat cascading down his face. Not only did it sting his eyes, his stupid chapel de fer kept sliding down too, making it impossible to see. When he finally wedged himself between two branches he took a breather and adjusted his helmet. His whole body was on fire and his heart stampeded in his chest – worse even than when he faced a cavalry charge on foot.Two days was all it took for him ...

41 likes

The Okayish Kids

Shortlisted for Contest #170 ⭐️

I make a list for everything. Groceries.To-dos.Every life-defining experience I want to have before I die—although, fact is, I never die. At approximately 1,751 years, 10 months, 29 days, 23 hours and 25 minutes old, I’m surprised that my nutrionally void diet of fruit cake and cookies hasn’t killed me just yet. These lists consume most of my day. They give me a sense of control over my life, from the precise order of my daily activities to errands I need to check off. My relentless nag of a wife, who unfortunately never dies...

36 likes

Taj Mahal: The Emblem of Love

Submitted to Contest #170

"Do you know, Taz? Why is honey sweet?" Asked Vedantha, coming into his hut, drenched and dusted from a long day of Divine Labour: a term coined by the Emporer Shah Jahan to make the labourers believe their work is sacred. "Not just honey! Have you ever wondered yet? Why is honeycomb itself sweet?" "Would you care to enlighten me, my love?" Taziana replied playfully without looking at him as she was busy cutting vegetables at the table. "Because every cell of it is made of love." He said and hugged his young wife from behind. She g...

35 likes

The Land Of Fairytales: The Gingerbread Ghost

Melony Beard

Submitted to Contest #170

The Land of Fairytales The Gingerbread Ghost Not so long ago, the Gingerbread Man lived alone, in a gingerbread house on the edge of Sugar Forest. His tiny home, decorated in white icing, was splattered with gumdrops, chocolate pieces and sprinkles. Green icing lined the windows, candy canes decorated the porch and marshmallows covered the roof like snow. One morning, when Gingerbread Man awoke, he glanced around his tiny home of confections and felt quite useless. Everyone in the Land of Fairytales had a special assignment. At least, ...

34 likes

A Precious Life

Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #170

“Would you like a free DNA test? It could change your future,” a man asks while handing me a pamphlet as I walk past a shopping mall on the second day of my vacation in Maui. He points at a QR code. "Just register here."I want to grab him and shout some violent threat, and ask if he knows my sister, but he says “have a good day” and walks off before I get the chance.This is because my sister Courtney sent me different versions of that same ad for years after she dropped out of university and disappeared from my life. Then two weeks ago, I re...

33 likes

Bloodlust

Alexandra Rodriguez

Submitted to Contest #170

I was going to kill a man tonight. That’s why I went to the party. It was an extravagant, black-tie affair thrown on a warm late summer evening at the end of July. Hosted by none other than Walter Adler, the richest man in town. Midnight was approaching, and with it, my deadline. I dressed the part, wearing a maroon dress with a corset torso and a slit up the thigh. My makeup was reminiscent of the famous women in 1950s era America. I was, as they say, dressed to kill. This particular estate had been blessed with a ballroom p...

32 likes

Choices

Robert Lee

Submitted to Contest #170

Locals say it's a magnet for drifters but he just calls it home. It’s known as Tornado Alley, but most folks don’t go there to bowl; they go there to drink and forget. The foundation is original, but the building is not; it’s been rebuilt twice, once in 2009 and again in 2014. His small apartment sits just behind the office and has everything a single man needs. It has a comfortable chair positioned right beside a twin bed and in front of a flat screen TV. He has a refrigerator that sometimes has food, but always has beer. There are no ...

32 likes

Who Polices the Police?

Submitted to Contest #170

TW: violence and swearing. No one wants to read the word ‘HELP’ in a text message. Especially from their wife, the mother of their baby. It could be anything. I’ve gone up against a lot of scary people. Most of them were militant white supremacists with a bent for murder. There were a load of perverts recently but destroying the lives of neo-Nazi’s was my bread and butter for years. I race back fro...

29 likes

Rhonda Reschedules

Story Time

Submitted to Contest #170

Rhonda rescheduled when she lost her alpaca. “I have no idea where she is,” Rhonda explained over the phone, her voice catching with panic after every third word, “Louisa never DOES this. She NEVER runs away. WHAT could she have been thinking?” Marty assured her that they could reschedule. He had nothing on his calendar for the next few months. His cousin was getting married in April, but that was it. The wedding was going to be underwater on one of those new matrimonial submarines that were becoming all the rage with brides. He would ...

28 likes

Rebirthing

Hannah P. Simmons

Submitted to Contest #170

The last thing I remember was trying to buy a bag of chips. I chose a gas station towards the edge of the wrong side of town. Those are safer. They don’t usually have the specialized tech. That’s the hard part about staying alive these days. It’s not getting a chip card, or even a voucher code. You can get those in almost any alley, provided you have something worth trading for. It’s the retinal scanners that you can’t fool. That’s how they can tell. That’s what makes this world Hell for the clones. Governments are really so fragile. It o...

28 likes

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Contest #171

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$250

Prize money

199

Entries

124

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 04, 2022 EST

Won by Camphor White 🏆

Title: Fini Flight

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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